treewoody plant that regularly renews its growth (perennial). Most plants classified as trees have a single self-supporting trunk containing woody tissues, and in most species the trunk produces secondary limbs, called branches.

To many, the word tree evokes images of such ancient, powerful, and majestic structures as oaks and sequoias, the latter being among the most massive and longest-living organisms in the world. Although the majority of the Earth’s terrestrial biomass is represented by trees, the fundamental importance of these seemingly ubiquitous plants for the very existence and diversity of life on Earth is perhaps not fully appreciated. Our biosphere is dependent on the metabolism, death, and recycling of plants, especially trees. Their vast trunks and root systems store carbon dioxide, move water, and produce oxygen that is released into the atmosphere. The organic matter of the soil develops primarily from decayed leaves, twigs, branches, roots, and fallen trees, all of which recycle nitrogen, carbon, oxygen, and other important nutrients. There are few organisms as important as trees for maintaining the Earth’s ecology.

This article discusses the historical, popular, and botanical classifications of trees, their evolution, their importance to humans, and their general structure and patterns of growth. For more information on the three botanical groups that include trees, see fern, gymnosperm (including conifers), and angiosperm (the flowering plants). For general information on plants, see plant.

Classification of trees

The ancient Greeks developed a classification about 300 BC in which plants were grouped according to their general form—that is, as trees, shrubs, undershrubs, and vines. This classification was used for almost 1,000 years. Modern classifications of plants attempt to assign a plant to a particular taxon and establish relationships with other plants based on genetics, cytology, ecology, behaviour, and probable evolutionary lineages, in addition to gross morphology. Popular classifications, however, remain useful tools for studying the common stresses that the environment exerts on all plants and the general patterns of adaptation that are shown no matter how distantly plants are related.

Phylogenetic classifications

Trees are represented in each of the major groups of the vascular plants: pteridophytes (seedless vascular plants that include the tree ferns), gymnosperms (cycads, ginkgoes, and conifers), and angiosperms (flowering plants).

Although tree ferns account for only a small percentage of ferns, many are conspicuous members of a forest, attaining heights of 7 to 10 metres (23 to 33 feet); some are 15, 18, or occasionally 24 metres tall (49, 59, or 79 feet). These graceful trees, which are natives of humid montane forests in the tropics and subtropics and of warm temperate regions of the Southern Hemisphere, have huge lacy leaves; they are the remnants of a vastly more numerous flora that populated much of the Earth during the Carboniferous Period (about 360 to 300 million years ago).

Cycads compose the Cycadophyta, a division of gymnospermous plants consisting of 4 families and approximately 140 species. Natives of warm regions of the Eastern and Western hemispheres, they also are remnants of a much larger number of species that in past geologic ages dominated the Earth’s flora.

The ginkgo is the only living representative of the division Ginkgophyta. It is a relic that has been preserved in cultivation around Buddhist temples in China and elsewhere since the mid-18th century; the tree probably no longer exists in a wild state.

Angiosperms dominate the Earth’s present flora; they contain more than 250,000 species, among which are the majority of the world’s trees. Angiosperms are sometimes divided on the basis of a group of characteristics into two groups: the monocotyledons and the dicotyledons. The most numerous of the monocotyledonous trees are palms; others include agaves, aloes, dracaenas, screw pines, and yuccas. By far the greatest number of tree species are dicotyledons; they are represented by such familiar groups as birches, elms, hollies, magnolias, maples, oaks, poplars, ashes, and willows.

Ecological and evolutionary classification

The tree is not an immutable biological category but rather a human concept based on visual criteria. Perhaps a general definition would describe a tree as a perennial woody plant that develops along a single main trunk to a height of at least 4.5 metres (15 feet) at maturity. This may be contrasted with a shrub, which might be loosely defined as a woody plant with multiple stems that is, in most cases, less than 3 metres (about 10 feet) tall. However, a species fitting the description of either in one area of the world might not necessarily do so in other regions, since a variety of stresses shape the habit of the mature plant. Thus, a given woody species may be a tree in one set of habitats within its range and a shrub elsewhere. For example, the spruce and fir may thrive in the tree form at the base of a mountain but assume a shrub form near the mountaintop, the variation due principally to stresses exerted by such environmental conditions as altitude, temperature, and oxygen tension.

As seen in the section above, trees are found among many plant families that also include shrubs and herbs, so that the concept of tree is not a phylogenetic one. Further, there is no clear consensus as to whether the tree form is the advanced or primitive condition. Some paleobotanists suggest that trees are the most primitive members within these plant families. However, tree forms are found in all the vascular plants, from the club mosses and ferns to the gymnosperms and angiosperms. It is furthermore true that, among the flowering plants, trees are found not only among the most primitive members (order Magnoliales) but also among the more specialized, or advanced, members, such as the roses (order Rosales).

Consequently, from both a taxonomic and a phylogenetic perspective, the tree is an artificial category. On an ecological basis, however, the tree can be recognized as a natural construct, as it represents an adaptive strategy by many different taxa to exploit and dominate the habitat above the ground.

In the early stages of the development of terrestrial life, land plants were rootless and leafless. Since they had their origins in aqueous environments, they did not require the specialized conducting and supporting tissues afforded by roots and stems, nor did they require localized regions of carbohydrate synthesis, since each cell was involved in metabolism, water and nutrient absorption, and respiration. Habitats farther from the water as well as aerial habitats represented available uninhabited environments.

One key to exploiting terrestrial habitats is increasing complexity of the plant’s form to allow specialization of function. This requires physiological and morphological complexity as well as biological optimization. If all the tissues of massive tree trunks were alive, for example, the physiological cost of maintaining these structures in the living state would be enormous and probably unattainable. An elegant solution came in the form of tremendous structural adaptations: new tissues and organs permitted localization of the functions of the plant body.

The evolution of discrete plant body parts with separate functions allowed plants to move onto the land and undergo an incredible adaptive radiation. Leaves evolved as specialized photosynthetic organs. Stems provided mechanical strength as well as a conductive capacity to transport water and nutrients from the roots to the leaves. Roots provided anchorage and absorption of sufficient water and nutrients to support the remainder of the plant.

Popular classifications

Trees have been grouped in various ways, some of which more or less parallel their scientific classification: softwoods are conifers, and hardwoods are dicotyledons. Hardwoods are also known as broadleaf trees. The designations softwood, hardwood, and broadleaf, however, are often imprecise. The wood of some hardwoods—for example, certain willows and poplars and the softest of all woods, balsa—is softer than that of some softwoods—e.g., the longleaf pine (Pinus palustris). Similarly, some broadleaf trees (tree heaths, Erica arborea, and some tamarisks) have narrower leaves than do those of certain conifers (Podocarpus).

A popular and convenient grouping of trees is evergreen and deciduous. This is most useful at the local rather than the worldwide level; whether a particular species retains its foliage throughout the year and thus qualifies as evergreen may depend on climate. At the limits of their occurrence in the Northern or Southern Hemisphere, and at high elevations, species that under more-favourable circumstances retain their foliage may become leafless for a period. Many tropical and subtropical species that in uniformly humid climates are never without foliage are deciduous in regions in which dry and wet seasons alternate. In northern North America, the term evergreen is often used as a synonym for conifer and thus excludes foliage-retaining angiosperms. But five coniferous genera—Larix (larch), Metasequoia (dawn redwood), Pseudolarix (golden larch), Taxodium (swamp cypress), and Glyptostrobus—are composed of or include deciduous species.

Other tree groups are popularly recognized: tree ferns, palms, and, among desert plants, the tree forms of agaves, aloes, cactuses, euphorbias, and yuccas. Sometimes the layperson includes as trees plants that botanists cannot accept as such—e.g., the banana. Such confusion arises from the fact that what appears to be the trunk of the “banana tree” is actually leafstalks rolled tightly around each other. The banana plant is entirely herbaceous, has no true trunk, and thus is not considered a tree by botanists.

The importance of trees

Forests are of immense importance in soil stabilization and erosion control, especially in mountainous and hilly regions; they also protect and conserve water supplies and prevent floods. Small groups of trees and even single trees have a similar role locally in preventing washouts and in holding stream banks. As mentioned above, trees contribute significantly to nutrient recycling, carbon dioxide absorption, and oxygen generation.

Economic importance

Of all the products that come from trees, those that are wood-based are by far of the greatest importance (see wood). Carbonized and fossilized wood (coal) supplies fuel for energy needs; other fossilized products of trees include amber, which is formed from the gum of pines, and kauri gum. From earliest times wood has been employed for such items as homes, rafts, canoes, fuel, and weapons.

Primitive peoples were dependent on trees for many materials in addition to wood. Fruits and nuts of many kinds were important foods for both humans and animals. Leaves of palms and other trees were used for thatching roofs. Cloth and woven fabrics made from bark, leaves, and other tree parts were used for clothing. Utensils were fashioned from calabashes, coconuts, and other fruits. Medicines, including quinine, were obtained from trees, as were dyes, tanning materials, and spices.

Modern civilizations are no less dependent on trees. Although substitutes now are commonly used for some tree products, the demand for trees remains strong, as in the manufacture of newsprint and other papers, as well as cardboard and similar packagings. The plywood industry converts immense numbers of trees into building materials.

Many tree products other than wood and its derivatives are important. Edible fruits produced by trees include apples, cherries, peaches, pears, walnuts, chestnuts, pecans, and others in temperate climates; avocados, figs, persimmons, and citrus fruits in warm-temperate and subtropical regions; breadfruit, jackfruit, mangoes, and mangosteens in tropical regions; and the important fruit of desert regions—the date. The coconut (Cocos nucifera), the oil palm (Elaeis guineensis), and the olive (Olea europaea) are important sources of oils and fats used as food and for other purposes. From trees come such spices as cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg; substances used in beverages, such as cocoa, coffee, and kola nuts; and chicle, the basis of chewing gum. Nonedible tree products exploited commercially include rosin, turpentine, tanbark, creosote, cork, and kapok fibre.

The history of wood use includes incidences of waste, sometimes bordering on elimination of a species from a particular region. Great forests of cedars of Lebanon (Cedrus libani), for example, were virtually eliminated during early historic times in lumbering operations for such purposes as the construction of King Solomon’s great temple and palace. Forests that covered much of the Mediterranean region and the Middle East were extravagantly exploited by the Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks, and Romans. Today the once vast tropical forests of the Amazon basin are in imminent danger of being deforested primarily for farmland.

Trees of special interest

Besides their utility to people, many trees are noteworthy for their habits and habitats, their size, or their longevity. The amazing diversity of tree form and function is a direct result of the complex and elegant organization of the tree body and the response of that body to environmental and biological stimuli. Structural features unique to woody plants are capitalized upon by trees to allow them to grow in a myriad of remarkable forms, sizes, and habitats. Mangroves, for example, colonize tidal shores and brackish waters in the tropics and subtropics throughout the world, and in so doing they not only stabilize shorelines but also create new land by trapping debris, silt, and mud among their interlacing roots. Mangroves are actually an unrelated, heterogeneous group of species with similar adaptations to this particular environment. Mangroves spread out into the water by sending from their branches roots that reach into the mud and develop into sturdy supporting props. A distinctive feature of mangroves is their large fruits, the seeds of which germinate and grow into sturdy seedlings before they leave the parent plant. When the seedlings fall, they either become fixed in the mud or float away, to be washed up at some site at which the opportunity to become established may occur.

Mangroves are not the only trees that spread by dropping prop roots from their branches. The habit is well developed in several tropical figs (Ficus), including one popular in small sizes as a houseplant—the rubber plant (F. elastica). Most noteworthy of the group is the banyan tree (F. benghalensis) of India; its numerous prop roots develop into secondary trunks that support the widespreading head of massive, constantly extending branches. One specimen in Calcutta covers an area more than 250 metres (about 275 yards) wide. The wonderboom (F. salicifolia) of Africa grows in a similar manner; a specimen at Pretoria has a spread of 50 metres (55 yards). Because of their unusual growth habits, some tropical ficuses are called strangler figs. Often they begin life high in a palm or some other tree in which a monkey, bat, or bird that has fed on the fruits deposits seeds that have passed through its alimentary tract. The seeds germinate, and the roots grow into organic matter collected in crotches or crevices of the host tree. Under humid conditions the seedlings grow rapidly, sending roots down along the trunk of the host tree. Upon reaching the ground the roots branch and establish themselves. Above the ground the roots thicken until they have formed an interlacing cylinder around the trunk of the host, often leading to the death of the host tree.

The ombu (Phytolacca dioica) is a remarkable South American relative of the pokeweed (P. americana). A tree capable of attaining heights of 20 metres (65 feet) and a spread of 30 metres (100 feet), it has a wide trunk; the branches contain as much as 80 percent water and very little wood tissue. From its base radiates a circle of rootlike outgrowths wide enough for a person to sit on.

The traveler’s tree of Madagascar (Ravenala madagascariensis) has a palmlike trunk up to 9 metres (30 feet) tall topped by a huge symmetrical fan of long-stalked paddle-shaped leaves often much shredded by wind. The vernacular name alludes to the leaves’ having hollow bases from which, it has been reported, travelers could obtain potable water.

The talipot palm (Corypha umbraculifera) of tropical Sri Lanka and India may live as long as 75 years before it flowers and fruits just one time and then dies. The huge panicle (many-branched cluster) of creamy white blooms rises up to 5 metres (16 feet) from the centre of the cluster of fan-shaped leaves topping the trunk, which may be 24 metres (about 80 feet) tall and 90 to 120 cm (3 to 4 feet) in diameter. Another palm of special interest is the double coconut (Lodoicea maldivica), a native of two tiny islands of the Seychelles group in the Indian Ocean; it has fruits that require about 10 years to mature, weigh up to 30 kg (66 pounds), and have the appearance of a pair of coconuts joined together. Long before their source was known, these fruits were washed up by the sea in India, and magical properties were ascribed to them.

The tallest trees are Pacific Coast redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens), specimens of which exceed 110 metres (about 350 feet) in height in Redwoods National Park and Humboldt Redwood State Park in California, U.S. The species is confined to a narrow coastal belt extending from southern Oregon to central California. The next tallest trees are the Australian mountain ash (Eucalyptus regnans), specimens of which in Victoria, Austl., exceed 90 metres (300 feet), the greatest heights known for nonconiferous trees. A close relative of the redwood, the giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum), develops the greatest total bulk of wood, but not the biggest girth, among trees. This tree, which attains heights in excess of 90 metres and may have a trunk diameter of about 7.5 metres (25 feet) some distance above its flaring base, is restricted to a strip about 420 km (260 miles) long and less than 24 km (15 miles) wide in the Sierra Nevadas, in California.

Records for tree girth (measured a metre or so above the ground) are held by the baobab (Adansonia digitata) of Africa and the Mexican swamp cypress (Taxodium mucronatum). The baobab attains a maximum height of about 23 metres (75 feet); its barrel-shaped trunk attains a diameter of more than 5 metres (16 feet), but a few individuals range from 7.7 to 15.9 metres (25 to 53 feet). The most-famous specimen of Mexican swamp cypress is “El Gigante,” located at Tule, Oaxaca. The trunk of this massive tree is buttressed and not circular; if the bays and promontories of the buttresses are followed, the basal circumference is nearly 46 metres (151 feet).

Tree structure and growth

In the section Ecological and evolutionary classification, it is pointed out that land plants are descended from aquatic plants. The early aquatic plants required few modifications for structural support or water and nutrient absorption, since the surrounding water fulfilled their needs. The water, far denser than the air, buoyed the plant body; the thin integument permitted a free exchange of nutrients across the entire relatively small body surface and a passive mechanism for spreading their gametes. Once primitive plants began to invade the land, however, modifications for support, nutrient and water absorption, turgidity, and reproduction were required to compensate for the absence of an aqueous environment. Because organic soils were not widely developed, the earliest terrestrial plants probably first colonized bare rock near large water sources, such as oceans and lakes. Generations of these plants recycling nutrients (e.g., nitrogen, carbon, and oxygen) and energy into the stratum contributed to the development of a rich organic soil suitable for large shrubs and herbs. With the proliferation of these low-lying plants, competition for available space, nutrients, and sunlight intensified. Aerial habitats and those farther afield from the large sources of water represented the only uninhabited environments left to be exploited. This required the physiological and morphological complexity found among the vascular plants.

General features of the tree body

As vascular plants, trees are organized into three major organs: the roots, the stems, and the leaves. The leaves are the principal photosynthetic organs of most higher vascular plants. They are attached by a continuous vascular system to the rest of the plant so that free exchange of nutrients, water, and end products of photosynthesis (oxygen and carbohydrates in particular) can be carried to its various parts.

The stem is divided into nodes (points where leaves are or were attached) and internodes (the length of the stem between nodes). The leaves and stem together are called the shoot. Shoots can be separated into long shoots and short shoots on the basis of the distance between buds (internode length). The stem provides support, water and food conduction, and storage.

Roots provide structural anchorage to keep trees from toppling over. They also have a massive system for harvesting the enormous quantities of water and the mineral resources of the soil required by trees. In some cases, roots supplement the nutrition of the tree through symbiotic associations, such as with nitrogen-fixing microorganisms and fungal symbionts called mycorrhizae, which are known to increase phosphorous uptake. Tree roots also serve as storage depots, especially in seasonal climates.

As is true of other higher vascular plants, all the branches and the central stem of trees (the trunk or bole) terminate in growing points called shoot apical meristems. These are centres of potentially indefinite growth and development, annually producing the leaves as well as a bud in the axis of most leaves that has the potential to grow out as a branch. These shoot apical growing centres form the primary plant body, and all the tissues directly formed by them are called the primary tissues. As in the stems, the growing points of the roots are at their tips (root apical meristems); however, they produce only more root tissue, not whole organs (leaves and stems). The root meristem also produces the root cap that covers the outside of the root tip.

The shoot apical meristems do not appear different between long and short shoots, but the lower part of the meristem does not produce as many cells in short shoots. In some cases, it may be totally inactive. Shoot meristems in some species may interconvert and change the type of shoot they produce. For example, in the longleaf pine, the seedlings enter a grass stage, which may last as long as 15 years. Here the terminal bud on the main axis exists as a short shoot and produces numerous needle-bearing dwarf shoots in which there is little or no internode elongation. Consequently, the seedling resembles a clump of grass. This is probably an adaptation to fire, water stress, and perhaps grazing. The root volume, however, continues to grow, increasing the chance of seedling survival once the shoot begins to grow out (i.e., the internodes start to expand). This process is called flushing.

The outermost layer of cells surrounding the roots and stems of the primary body of a vascular plant (including the leaves, flowers, fruits, and seeds) is called the epidermis. The closely knit cells afford some protection against physical shock, and, when invested with cutin and covered with a cuticle, they also provide some protection from desiccation. Stomata (pores) are interspersed throughout the epidermal cells of the leaves (and to some extent on the stems) and regulate the movement of gases and water vapour into and out of the plant body.

Immediately adjacent is a cylinder of ground tissue; in the stem the outer region is called the cortex and the inner region the pith, although among many of the monocotyledons (an advanced class of angiosperms, including the palms and lilies) the ground tissue is amorphous and no regions can be discerned. The roots of woody dicots and conifers develop only a cortex (the pith is absent), the innermost layer of which comprises thick-walled wall cells called endodermal cells.

The final tissue system of the primary plant body is the vascular tissue, a continuous system of conducting and supporting tissues that extends throughout the plant body. The vascular system consists of two conducting tissues, xylem and phloem; the former conducts water and the latter the products of photosynthesis. In the stems and roots the vascular tissues are arranged concentrically, on the order of a series of cylinders. Each column, or cylinder, of primary vascular tissue develops the primary xylem toward the inner aspect of the column and the primary phloem toward the outer aspect. The multiple vascular cylinders are arranged throughout the cortex, either in an uninterrupted ring between the cortex and pith or separated from each other by ground tissues. In some monocotyledons the vascular cylinders are scattered throughout the stem. Regardless of their arrangement, however, the multiple vascular columns form strands from the leaves to the roots, moving water and nutrients where they are most needed.

All plants, including trees, start life as seedlings whose bodies are composed wholly of primary tissues. In this respect, young trees are structually structurally analogous to the herbaceous plants. It is the conversion of a seedling from an herbaceous plant to a woody plant that marks the initiation of tree-specific strucuresstructures. In dicotyledonous and coniferous (i.e., woody) trees and shrubs, the defining structure that permits this conversion is a layer of meristematic cells, called the vascular cambium, that organizes between the primary xylem and primary phloem of the vascular cylinders. The cambium forms the wood and the inner bark of the tree and is responsible for thickening the plant, whereas the apical meristems are responsible for forming and elongating the primary plant body. A vascular cambium forms in conifers and dicotyledons and to a lesser extent in some monocotyledons and cycads. Tree ferns do not develop a vascular cambium; hence, no secondary thickening of the trunk takes place in the usual sense.

The formation of the vascular cambium is initiated when cells between the columns of vascular tissue connect the cambia inside the columns of vascular tissue to form a complete cylinder around the stem. The cells formed toward the inside are called secondary xylem, or wood, and those formed toward the outside of the cambium are called secondary phloem. The bark and the wood together constitute the secondary plant body of the tree. The woody vascular tissue provides both longitudinal and transverse movement for carbohydrates and water.

The vascular cambium consists of two types of cells, which together give rise to the secondary xylem and phloem: fusiform initials and ray initials. The fusiform initials are long cells that give rise to the axial (longitudinal) system of vascular tissue. The cells of the axial system are arranged parallel with the long axis of the tree trunk. The ray initials form the radial system of the bark and wood. These initials are more squat in shape and produce cells oriented perpendicular to the axial cells.

The anatomy and organization of wood

Wood is characterized by the presence of axial and radial structures derived from the fusiform and ray initials, respectively. In conifers the cells of the axial system are most frequently tracheids, which are designed to form tissues for strength and water conduction; in hardwoods the axial system is composed primarily of fibres and vessel elements. Having two cell types permits a division of labour; the fibres serve a largely mechanical function, and the vessel elements are wide, hollow cells specialized for water conduction. Wood grain is determined by the orientation of the cells of the axial system and is thus a measure of the longitudinal alignment of the tracheids (in a softwood) or fibres and of their predominance.

The radial system functions primarily in the transport of carbohydrates from the inner bark to the wood; there are some food-storage cells in this system as well, and water movement through the rays is possible. Ray cells interrupt the interconnections of the tracheids or fibres; hence, wood is split more easily along the wood rays.

In many species, only the youngest wood carries water and nutrients throughout the plant; this is called sapwood. As the tree ages, the older inner portions of the sapwood are infiltrated by oils, gums, resins, tannins, and other chemical compounds. When the cells die, the sapwood has been converted to heartwood, often darker in colour than the sapwood. Heartwood, although dead, typically persists for the life of the tree and affords structural strength unless diseased and can serve as a reservoir of water for the sapwood.

In normal or good growing conditions, the proportion of secondary xylem cells formed is much greater than that of the secondary phloem, as much as 10–20 to 1, but in extremely stressful years or situations the phloem is less affected, and the ratio may drop below 1. In most cases, the phloem operates in food transport for only a single year, while the xylem of most species may function in sap conduction for several years before it loses functionality and becomes heartwood. The tree annually produces more wood than it needs for conduction and support under most conditions; i.e., there is a wide margin of safety in xylem production. In contrast, there is a much smaller margin of safety in phloem production; hence, it has higher priority of allocation of the energy resources of the tree. Under extremely stressful conditions, annual xylem production may be zero even while some phloem continues to be formed.

Branching is a significant characteristic in trees. Most conifers form a well-defined dominant trunk with smaller lateral branches (excurrent branching). Many angiosperms show for some part of their development a well-defined central axis, which then divides continually to form a crown of branches of similar dimensions (deliquescent branching). This can be found in many oaks, the honey locust (Gleditsia triacanthos), the silver linden (Tilia tomentosa), and the American elm (Ulmus americana). The palms illustrate the third major tree form, columnar, in which the central axis develops without branching until the apex of the bole.

Growth ring formation

Trees growing in areas with pronounced seasonal differences generally experience an “awakening” of the cambium at the beginning of the growing season to form the growth ring of wood and bark. Growth ring formation probably evolved late in the Paleozoic Era in response to seasonal changes in water availability. While tree height is closely associated with the quality of the site on which the tree is growing (i.e., the climate, soil, topography, and biota), radial growth is tied more to the weather conditions of the current year. For this reason, the width of growth rings has been used to provide information on past climates as well as to date events of the past. Dendroclimatology and dendrochronology are names given to these fields of study. Historically, growth rings (also called growth increments) were called annual rings. Modern understanding of seasonal wood formation now recognizes that many trees, particularly in the tropics and subtropics, form rings not on an annual basis but rather in response to various cyclic environmental conditions. Growth rings are visible because of the differences in cell types, characteristics, and arrangement between these cycles. Within a growth ring, those cells responsible for the conduction of water rapidly become devoid of cell contents because they must be empty and dead at functional maturity. The hollow centre of a cell is called the lumen.

Hardwoods may be divided into ring-porous and diffuse-porous trees. In ring-porous trees the vessels laid down at the beginning of the growing season are much larger than subsequent vessels laid down at the end of the season (or ring). Diffuse-porous trees form vessels of roughly the same radial diameter throughout the growing season. Larger vessel size permits more-rapid water conduction, because the rate of conduction varies with the fourth power of the radius of the vessel lumen. Most ring-porous trees are found in the north temperate areas of the world. In a number of species the vessels become occluded by cellular ingrowths from surrounding living cells. The occlusions, called tyloses, may occur in the first year after vessel formation. The protoplast of an adjacent living cell proliferates through thin areas in the cell walls known as pits. Red oak (Quercus rubra) does not have tyloses, whereas white oak (Q. alba) does; this is why white oak is used to make whiskey barrels, while red oak cannot be utilized for this purpose.

The width of the annual increment depends on soil quality, the date of initiation and cessation of radial growth for the year, the rate of cell division, and the rate and magnitude of cell expansion. Radial diameters of cells in the axial system are generally larger in spring, because water stress is low and hormone production high.

The thickest-walled cells generally mark the end of the growth ring. This often results in a sharp disjunction between growth rings, as the next cell formed will be a large-diameter, thin-walled cell that marks initiation of the next year’s earlywood. (The terms spring wood and summer wood are no longer commonly used because it is now known that in many locations most of the so-called summer wood is actually formed in the spring.) In preformer species (trees that contain all of next year’s needles in their winter buds), cambial activity begins about the same time as shoot growth but generally continues for some time after shoot growth ceases for the year. In neoformers (trees that do not preform all of next year’s leaves in their winter buds), leaf formation may continue for some time after diameter growth ceases.

Under adverse conditions, variations are observed: incomplete (discontinuous) rings, missing rings (no wood formed in a given year), false rings, eccentric rings (overproduction on one side), and fluted rings (overproduction at various sites around the circumference of the ring). In a given tree in a given year, any combination of these variations may be seen from crown to base.

The normal condition, especially in trees of temperate regions, is the development of a single ring during each growing season. Other rings formed during the season are called false rings. The false-ring phenomenon is clearly evinced in conifers when the normal growing season is interrupted by factors such as drought in the spring. As conditions worsen, the radial diameters of the secondary tissue cells decrease and the walls may thicken, and the wood may take on the appearance of latewood. Once the drought conditions have passed, the radial diameters of the cells of the secondary tissues will increase, creating the appearance of a new annual ring. This, however, is a false ring, because there is a gradient of increasing cell-wall thickness and decreasing cell diameter at the start of the false ring and another gradient of decreasing cell-wall thickness and increasing cell diameter at the end of the false ring.

False rings are a challenge to dendroclimatology, but they also offer the opportunity to trace weather patterns over long periods of time. Information on past climates is encoded not only in the number of cells in an annual ring but also in the thickness and composition of the cell walls and in the lumen diameters. Complications in reading this information arise because the growth increment produced by a given tree in a given year may be of unequal width at different points around the bole and at different heights in the tree. Classic growth rings are found in conifers and ring-porous hardwoods, where the delineation of growth rings is clear. In diffuse-porous temperate hardwoods and ring-bearing tropical trees, variations in the cells in response to developmental, seasonal, and chronological time may obscure the limits of the tree rings.

Tree bark

Most tree species have bark that is unique in structure and appearance; in fact, many trees can be identified by the characteristics of their bark alone. In some species the bark looks similar throughout the life of the plant, while in others there are dramatic changes with age.

The term tree bark refers to the tissues outside the vascular cambium. The inner bark is composed of secondary phloem, which in general remains functional in transport for only one year. A second type of lateral (nonapical) meristem, called the cork cambium, develops in some of the cells of the older phloem and forms cork cells. The cork cells push the old secondary phloem cells toward the outer margins of the stem, where they are crushed, are torn, and eventually slough off. All tissues outside the cork cambium constitute the outer bark, including the nonfunctional phloem and cork cells. The cork may develop during the first year in many trees and form exfoliating bark, while in others, such as beeches, dogwoods, and maples, the bark may not exfoliate for several years. In cases of delayed formation, the outer covering of the stem, the periderm or the epidermis, must enlarge and grow to keep pace with the increase in stem diameter.

Bark minimizes water loss from the stems, deters insect and fungal attack, and can be a very effective protector against fire damage, as is demonstrated by the high fire resistance of redwood and giant sequoia trees, which have a massive bark.

The cork cambium provides an effective barrier against many kinds of invaders; however, in being so resilient, it also cuts off the outer secondary phloem and tissues from the rest of the wood, effectively killing it. Thus, the outer bark is made up entirely of dead tissue.

The pattern of cork development is the main determinant of bark appearance. In some barks the cork cambium and cork tissues are laid down in a discontinuous and overlapping manner, resulting in a scaly type of bark (pines and pear trees); in other barks the pattern is continuous and in sheets (paper birch and cherry). Barks show various patterns intermediate between these extremes.

The cork cambium primarily produces a single cell type, the cork cells; however, the walls may be thick or thin. Birch bark peels because it has alternating layers of thick- and thin-walled cork cells. Birch bark also has numerous pores on the bark, called lenticels, and these are also associated with cork formation because they provide openings for gas exchange. In most cases, they form at the location of stomates.

Bark varies from the smooth, copper-coloured covering of the gumbo-limbo (Bursera simaruba) to the thick, soft, spongy bark of the punk, or cajeput, tree (Melaleuca leucadendron). Other types of bark include the commercial cork of the cork oak (Quercus suber) and the rugged, fissured outer coat of many other oaks; the flaking, patchy-coloured barks of sycamores (Platanus) and the lacebark pine (Pinus bungeana); and the rough shinglelike outer covering of shagbark hickory (Carya ovata).

Flower buds

Tree buds may be vegetative or reproductive. Vegetative buds continue to produce height growth units unless or until they are induced to form flowers. When a shoot apical meristem is induced to form a reproductive bud, its existence terminates when the pollen or seeds are shed. Exactly what induces the formation of a reproductive bud varies with species, but changes in the number of daylight hours are common signals in many plants. Changes in the levels of hormones and carbohydrates are among the factors that signal the physiological factors that directly result in flowering.

Tree roots

Roots provide anchorage and absorption of sufficient water and nutrients to support the remainder of the plant. Trees have a greater variety of roots than do other vascular plants. The feeder, or fine, roots are similar to those of herbaceous vascular plants until, as they mature, they begin to undergo secondary growth. Stress roots form in some species when a plant suffers from water or nutrient stress. Adventitious roots may form in external tissue as well as on existing roots. Roots may grow down, sideways, or even up along tree trunks. These directions are determined by a transducing system that converts physical signals into physiological signals that control the morphological and anatomical development of the roots. The main locus of gravity perception is thought to reside in the root cap. Roots of several forms may be present in a single individual. For example, mangroves can have feeder roots for absorption, stilt roots for support, and pneumatophores for aeration.

Buttress roots are aerial extensions of lateral surface roots and form only in certain species. Buttress roots stabilize the tree, especially in shallow saturated soils, thereby resisting toppling. They are common in certain tropical trees of wet lowland environments but, with few exceptions, such as bald cypress swamps, are largely absent in temperate trees. A diverse number of tree families and species develop buttress roots, suggesting that they are induced by the environment and are of some adaptive advantage.

Buttress roots are characterized by thin (about 8–10 cm [3–4 inches] thick) planklike extensions from the tree trunk. They may be as much as 3 metres (10 feet) tall and extend 3 metres laterally from the base of the tree. The radial diameter of the individual vessel elements and the amount of vessel area per unit cross-sectional area of xylem are reduced in buttress roots. The amount of cell-wall area is correspondingly increased, although the individual cell walls are somewhat thinner.

Buttresses tend to be more prevalent on the windward side of the tree and thus function in tension resistance. Height growth is diminished whenever buttressing is developed, suggesting that the carbon resources of the tree are reallocated as a response to environmental conditions. There may be secondary effects of buttress roots, such as retardation of water flow around the tree base, thereby preventing nutrients and nutrient-rich litter from washing away. It is unlikely that buttresses provide aeration, as they have different anatomy from pneumatophores and as some species have both buttresses and pneumatophores—e.g., Pterocarpus officinalis and bald cypress, Taxodium distichum.

Pneumatophores are specialized root structures that grow out from the water surface and facilitate the aeration necessary for root respiration in hydrophytic trees such as many mangrove species (e.g., Avicennia germinans and Laguncularia raecemosa), bald cypresses, and cotton (tupelo) gum (Nyssa aquatica). Red mangroves (Rhizophora mangle) have stilt roots that function in both support and aeration.

Hydrophytic trees have various modifications that facilitate their survival and growth in the aqueous environment. Some species produce a high frequency of lenticels on the bark that facilitate gas exchange. Others exhibit greater permeation of oxygen through the bark and into the cambium at lower oxygen concentrations. Hydrophytic trees often have more intercellular spaces in their tissues to promote aeration of their roots. Some trees produce adventitious water roots near the waterline after flooding conditions develop. The new roots produced have altered structure (surface sealing layers, more loosely packed cells in cortex, and poorly developed endodermis). Such roots are said to show acclimation. Hydrophytic species are often adapted to anaerobic metabolism and can endure the often toxic by-products of this process (e.g., ethyl alcohol and lactic acid). Some trees in the Amazon survive several months of total inundation each year.

Root hairs form some distance back from the root tip and mature at about the point where the first primary xylem cells mature. A type of transfer cell and supplied with many protoplasmic connections to the adjacent root cells, root hairs increase the absorbing area of the roots at minimal carbon cost and can penetrate finer pores in the soil. Phosphorus uptake is directly correlated with length and frequency of root hairs. The roots of some species form associations with certain fungi called mycorrhizae. These fungal root associations also facilitate phosphorus uptake. Root hairs are less abundant on southern pines than on associated hardwoods in the southeastern United States, and this is thought to give the hardwoods a competitive edge in some cases.

Tree height growth

The two primary determinants of height growth are the number of height growth units (the node plus its subtending internode) produced during each growing season and elongation of the internodes. This process is sensitive to environmental factors such as water availability, soil quality, and climatic variation, as well as to the time of year when height growth units are initiated and when they elongate. This is correlated with variation in growth hormone production by expanding buds and leaves.

Most north temperate trees form their leaves during the development of the terminal buds of the previous year to some degree (preformers). In these species the number of height growth units for the year is determined to a great extent during the previous year. For example, those of the grand fir (Abies grandis) in the area of Vancouver are preformed in October, so that at spring bud break those height growth units elongate and develop; a new bud is then initiated in July. Thus, the environmental conditions between July and October affect the number and properties of the height growth units that grow out in the current year. Since the leaves are the source of carbohydrates required for, and used in, wood and bark formation, the climate of the previous year also affects the diameter growth of the current year. Examples of preformers are most pines, fir, hickory, spruce, Douglas fir, beech, and oak. Some trees are neoformers, because they form most or all of their leaves in the current year of growth. Examples of this are birch, chestnut, poplar, willow, larch, tulip tree, and some tropical pines. Seedlings will often be neoformers and then become preformers as adults.

The monopodial form of tree growth is maintained by the dominance of the apical buds over the lateral buds. The healthy apical bud produces a sufficient hormonal influence over the lateral buds to keep them suppressed; however, some species abort the terminal bud either annually, as in the basswood (Tilia americana), or occasionally, as in the American birch (Fagus grandifolia). In these cases, the new terminal growth originates from a lateral branch, causing sympodial growth.

Besides terminal buds and axillary buds formed in the axils of leaves, buds may form outside the apical meristem. This is called adventitious growth. When a bole of a tree that has been shaded for a number of years is suddenly exposed to light, new buds, called epicormic buds, may be initiated. Epicormic buds may be adventitious in origin or formed from dormant axillary trace buds. In many cases, buds may grow out that were formed by or outside the shoot meristem but became dormant until induced by environmental factors. Rather unique adventitious buds may develop on roots and grow out as shoots. These are called root suckers; the process is called suckering.

There is also variation in the number of bud flushes per year in temperate as well as tropical trees. Trees like the preformer eastern white pine (Pinus strobus) have a single flush per year followed by formation of a dormant terminal bud. Other species have several flushes per year, but each flush is followed by formation of a terminal bud.

Finally, there are species that have a terminal bud but then extend height growth unit formation throughout the growing season until setting a terminal bud with some of the following year’s leaves at the end of the growing season (mixed model). Some species, such as lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta), are polycyclic; they have several flushes from a single bud during the growing season.

Height growth is terminated at the end of the growing season by factors such as the length of day. Occasionally, mild fall weather may induce buds that normally would not flush until the following spring. These are often termed lammas shoots.

Obviously, there is a limit to the height of trees. One observation is that the tallest and most massive trees are found in moist habitats, such as the Pacific Northwest of the United States and tropical rainforests. This suggests that the process of lifting water to the tops of trees may be a major limitation to the development of tree height. The physics of the process would be necessarily complex. If, for example, a vacuum pump was attached to a tall vertical pipe, the pump could pull water up to only a height of approximately 9 metres (30 feet). How then do trees, some of which may be more than 90 metres tall, get water to their tops?

The current consensus is that sap is pulled up from the roots by the leaves. The Dixon cohesion theory of water ascent in trees, named after Irish botanist H.H. Dixon, suggests that water molecules in the trees adhere to each other along columns under tension. The stomata of the leaves, which in most plants are open during the day and closed at night, transpire water from the leaf into the air. As each water molecule leaves, the chain of water molecules is pulled up by one molecule. It therefore can be said that water is pulled up by forces acting in the leaf and is not pushed up to any extent from below.

Tree trunks often shrink in diameter during sunny summer days because of the large amount of water lost from the leaves by transpiration. The trunks will then swell during the night as water is restored to the tree from the soil. Most of the shrinking and swelling takes place in the bark, but some occurs in the wood. The ascent of the water, or sap as it is often called, is a purely physical process requiring the water molecules in each column of water in the tree to cohere. Although the water columns periodically break, there is ample evidence that in many cases they can be restored. Furthermore, as long as there is a sufficient number of water columns left, the tree will still be able to obtain sufficient water to maintain the turgidity of its leaves. As the tree grows taller, however, the problem of maintaining adequate flow of water to the top is thought to become more difficult, because the frequency of column breakage increases as the columns get longer. (The term sap is used for the fluid moving up the tree because it includes not only water but also minerals and a number of dissolved substances such as sugars and amino acids.)

Another factor that is thought to limit tree height is the increased mechanical strength required as a tree becomes larger. Even the largest known trees remain well below the height–diameter ratio that would cause toppling with minimal wind sway. As trees grow taller, they must grow increasingly thicker in order to keep from toppling over. In some trees, especially in moist unstable sites, large buttressed roots spread out and stabilize the tree.

At some point, however, there is a limit to the possible adaptations that can permit increased tree height. Size makes for complexity as morphological and physiological adaptations are stressed to the limit. The phyletic lines of many animal groups, for instance, show examples of extinct ancestors that grew increasingly large until they died off. Similarly in tree heights, a single factor is seldom limiting, but, rather, a combination of factors interact to destabilize the tree. It is clear that large size in animal species has certain reproductive and adaptive advantages. It is not so clear what advantage large size has for trees other than ensuring access to solar radiation; because large size increases the food-and-water storage capacity of a tree, it may therefore impart ability to resist stress.

Many tropical trees exhibit intermittent height growth despite ever-moist and otherwise favourable growth conditions. In temperate trees there is a period of true dormancy in the fall. Chilling is required to overcome this true dormancy. After the chilling requirement is met (artificially, about one month at approximately 0 to 5 °C [32 to 41 °F]), the buds enter winter dormancy (quiescence). This type of dormancy is simply due to low temperature, and the buds can be induced to flush merely by taking them into a greenhouse. After bud set (i.e., bud formation) in July, the buds may be considered to be in summer dormancy, because they will normally not grow out until the following year. This scenario implies that hormones are the inhibiting factors. These buds may be induced to flush by defoliation or unusual weather patterns.

True dormancy is extremely difficult to break, but in some cases increasing both the length of day and the temperature with or without hormonal treatments can induce some degree of flushing. As the chilling process proceeds, the window of inducing conditions enlarges. It should be noted that these buds are dormant only in the sense that no internodal elongation takes place. Other types of biological activity, such as cell division and formation of primordia, may take place, depending on the species. Thus, bud dormancy is a dynamic interaction between growth promoters and growth inhibitors. In some cases, active buds may be induced into dormancy by application of hormone inhibitors and then reactivated by other hormones.

Some pine trees, especially in the tropics, exhibit a type of growth called foxtailing. This is primarily a plantation phenomenon wherein, after planting, the trees elongate continuously without producing any lateral branches. Several metres of branch-free bole may be produced, and then the tree may grow in a more normal pattern and may revert to foxtailing at various times. This is an ultimate expression of free growth. Species that exhibit this phenomenon include Pinus caribaea, P. canariensis, P. insularis, P. tropicalis, P. merkusii, P. palustris, P. echinata, P. elliottii, and P. taeda. The last four species constitute the southern yellow pines of the southeastern United States. The Monterey pine of California (P. radiata) also may foxtail in subtropical environments.

There are both genetic and environmental components involved in foxtailing; for example, a selected strain of Caribbean pine that was certified not to foxtail in Australia reportedly exhibited 80 percent foxtailing when grown in Puerto Rico. Foxtailing decreases with altitude, stand density, and soil quality. The cause is thought to be due to hormone imbalances induced by exotic environments. Some species or individuals are better able than others to adjust to this without foxtailing.

The advantages of foxtailing that have been reported are greater height growth, better stem form (i.e., straight with minimum taper), and greater dry matter production of more merchantable material. (Dry matter is the weight [mass] of plant material formed after it has been dried in an oven until it has reached constant weight.) Disadvantages have been reported to be lower stem stability resulting in greater wind damage, low seed production, lack of latewood, and more compression wood (see below Adaptations). Both decreases and increases in volume production have been reported.

Tree lines

As one proceeds poleward or as elevation increases, the height of the trees gradually decreases while the spacing between them increases until a point is finally reached where the trees give way to tundra. This is called the tree line.

Arctic tree lines form a ring around the Arctic Ocean and extend southward to Labrador and westward around the Bering Sea from Alaska to Siberia. In oceanic regions Arctic tree lines are characterized by birches, while in the interior Arctic larches and spruce are more common. Firs are present in some Arctic tree lines. Antarctic tree lines are more abrupt, as very little tundra vegetation exists in these areas.

The shape of trees also changes with altitude. Broad-leaved trees are more common at lower altitudes, as at the base of a mountain. These tree forms gradually give way to pines and sometimes birches as the altitude increases. Spruce and fir tend to dominate forests at the highest elevations. Local conditions determine whether Alpine timberlines arise gradually or abruptly as the altitude increases. Abrupt timberlines give way to Alpine meadows and then boulder fields, followed by bare rock with life-forms limited to lichens.

The transition to the treeless condition is more commonly gradual. Initially in a closed, tightly spaced forest (forest line), the spacing between trees widens rapidly as tree height decreases (the kampf zone). This zone gives way to a region of low twisted and stunted trees called the krummholz. Together, the kampf zone and the krummholz constitute the transition zone. The end of the krummholz marks the tree line.

The same woody species may at higher elevations grow as prostrate shrubs, especially in sheltered nooks and crannies. The zones are uneven because these kinds of local shelter conditions may extend the limits of each zone. Forests may extend along ridges where squirrels and other nut gatherers have stored seed, so each situation may have endemic differences from any assumed model of tree line.

The increase in spacing after forest line is correlated with a decline in the quality of the habitat as the temperature decreases, the wind increases, and the soil becomes increasingly impoverished. As the energy content of the ecosystem decreases, the diversity of organisms in the ecosystem diminishes.

Trees that are more widely spaced have a greater chance of survival because a greater percentage of the stem is covered with foliage, and this foliage receives more light and heat. In addition, there is less competition in the roots for the available nutrients in the soil. The isolated condition, however, makes the trees more susceptible to wind damage, snow blast, and ice damage.

Tree form has a genetic component, because some species are able to exist in an erect form where other species cannot. An example of this is limber pine (Pinus flexilis) and bristlecone pine (P. aristata), both of which are found in the Colorado Rocky Mountains in the United States. These species form erect trees where Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmanni) and Alpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa) can exist only as prostrate forms. One reason lies in the pines’ greater resistance to winter desiccation damage at high elevation owing to the thick coating of wax and cuticle on the surface of their needles. These species differences can result in double timberlines, where one tree species or group of species forms a tree line at a different elevation from another species or group of species.

Low temperature is the main arbiter of timberlines. This is dramatically apparent in the higher timberlines that can be observed on the sunnier slopes of a mountain. Low temperature is also the reason for the increase in tree line in interior mountains with warmer summers, such as the Rocky Mountains (about 3,000–3,350 metres, or 10,000–11,000 feet), as opposed to coastal mountains, such as the White Mountains of New Hampshire, U.S. (approximately 1,400 metres, or 4,600 feet), where the summers are cooler and cloudier.

Another manifestation of the heat balance effect is the increase in altitudinal tree lines as latitude decreases in the Northern Hemisphere from the subarctic to the subtropical. In general, tree form is possible wherever the mean temperature for the month of July is equal to or greater than 10 °C (50 °F). A somewhat better fit can be obtained by using the point where the daily maximum temperature is greater than or equal to 11.1 °C (52 °F) during the growing season.

The low temperatures in the Alpine environment stem from the decrease in temperature with elevation: warm air rises; as it does so, it expands and cools. The expansion requires work (in the form of heat) to be expended in the process, and temperature drops. In general, there is a 1 °C drop in temperature for every 100-metre rise in elevation (or, roughly, 2.5 °F for every 500 feet). However, the temperature drop varies somewhat with conditions on individual mountains (e.g., wet versus dry mountain ranges). Larger mountain massifs also show a smaller drop in temperature with increase in altitude. This is because the air mass impinging on the large massif must rise over the entire structure, and the air mass does not cool as much as when only a portion of it rises over a smaller or more isolated mountain. As a consequence, timberlines are higher on a larger mountain range for a given latitude, location, and climate. Nevertheless, other factors, such as radiation, moisture, cloudiness, wind, snow and snow blast, ice, and physiography, affect tree lines to various degrees.

Trees that grow at high elevations are adapted to this environment. The high-elevation environment is characterized by higher light intensity (when clear) and proportion of ultraviolet radiation, lower absolute humidity (which favours water loss) and carbon dioxide content, frequent high winds, and greater daily temperature fluctuations, radiation of heat out into space (especially at night), and precipitation (although some alpine areas are subject to drought at times). Any or all of these factors can interact to bring about unique formations. For example, cold air drainages at the crest of valleys can cause a local depression of timberline. The reason low temperatures affect timberline is that they slow biological processes, which decreases the production of dry matter, a condition that is exacerbated by the shortened growing season. As a result, fewer of the cells, tissues, and storage molecules that are needed for annual growth and reproduction are formed. If the growing season is shortened too much, the optimum amount of supportive tissue may not be formed.

The covering layers of the tree surface also are important in resisting environmental stresses. The biotic stress and inadequate energy production and allocation that occur when temperature is sufficiently low may impair the optimum development of these superficial layers and increase the vulnerability of the tree.

Seed production requires energy reserves that may not normally be available each year. The interval between good seed years increases with elevation and latitude. It is another important aspect of survival in the cold at high elevation, although species at high elevation compensate for this somewhat by relying more heavily on asexual reproduction. Thus, the tree line may be considered to be an equilibrium space between the forces of regeneration upward and mortality downward.

Cloudiness can lower tree lines because it decreases the photosynthesis-to-respiration ratio, causing a carbon deficit. For example, the tree line is lower on the warmer, cloudier western coast of Scotland than it is on the colder, clearer eastern coast because on the west the cloudy weather limits photosynthesis, while the warmer temperatures promote respiration.

The factors that limit tree growth at high elevation and extreme latitude indirectly promote longevity, as in the case of the Great Basin bristlecone pine (P. longaeva). The factors involved are smaller tree size, slower growth rate (possibly mediated by lower night temperatures), larger allocation of carbon to roots as opposed to tops (stems and leaves), cold hardiness, efficient use of water, more reliance on asexual reproduction, and fewer pathogens in the environment.

Some long-lived trees, such as the Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), have been found in lava beds, suggesting that reduced competition and the presence of fewer pathogens in this environment might be factors in the long life spans. This harsh environment probably also reduces the developmental rate, which is correlated with increased life span in some species.

The major difference between subarctic and subalpine timberline environments is that the subalpine environment has greater light intensity and more ultraviolet light, less variation in the length of the day, lower carbon dioxide, and more daily temperature variation. The subalpine also has higher precipitation, especially snow, but the soil is generally drier because of better soil drainage and the mountainous topography. The factors that are common to both are the short growing season, low temperatures, and high winds. Mountains located in arid areas may show additional complexity along elevational gradients owing to marked changes in both water availability and temperature. In the southwestern United States, small piñon pines may grow at the base of mountains, and, as elevation increases, temperature decreases along with water stress. Tree height increases as the larger ponderosa pines dominate; these in turn may give way to Douglas fir. At higher altitudes, spruce and fir predominate, and they decrease in height with altitude, forming tree lines at the upper limits.

Adaptations

The environmental factors affecting trees are climate, soils, topography, and biota. Each species of tree adapts to these factors in an integrated way—that is, by evolving specific subpopulations adapted to the constraints of their particular environments. As discussed above, the major factor is the decrease in temperature with increasing elevation or extremes in latitude. Each subpopulation adapts to this by modifying the optimum temperature at which the all-important process of photosynthesis takes place.

Many tree species that survive in unfavourable habitats actually grow better in more-favourable habitats if competition is eliminated. Such trees have a low threshold for competition but are very tolerant of extremes. For example, the black spruce (Picea mariana) is found in bogs and mountaintops in the northeastern United States but cannot compete well with other trees, such as red spruce (P. rubens), on better sites. Consequently, in the White Mountains of New Hampshire in the northeastern United States, red spruce is found at the base of the mountains and black spruce at the top, with some development of subspecies populations (hybridization) at intermediate elevations.

Competition within a species (and in some cases genus) is often most intense because the individuals compete for the same environmental resources. Since trees are unable to move in search of resources, competition for available space and resources can be important. Competition aboveground centres on light, space, and symbionts (largely pollinators), while that below ground is over water, space, nutrients, and symbionts (microorganisms such as mycorrhizae and nitrogen-fixers).

The ability of a tree to coexist with other members of the species in a given habitat may depend on the diversification of the space and resources they require. In extreme environments, such as are found on mountains and in the subarctic, survival depends on the physical factors of the environment, whereas in more-moderate habitats biotic factors become increasingly important. Flexibility and efficiency of resource use then become more important in determining survival and reproduction.

The concept of species’ niche relates the species or individual to the totality of its environment. The niche for a plant species is the set of environmental conditions that permits a given species to exist based on its morphological, anatomical, cytological, and physiological capacities.

For a given species there are limiting values for each environmental factor; these define the niche. Habitats change over time, but changes in species are not as rapid or drastic as those of habitats. In addition to changes that take place within chronological time, tree species and forests change during developmental time—for example, seedlings of trees such as white pine (Pinus strobus) are generally more tolerant of shade than are the adult forms of the species.

Competition between trees is actually more severe under limiting conditions (water, nutrients, or light) than it is under toxic conditions. Under toxic pollution levels, the tree may be damaged by the surplus of a single toxic element or condition, and the species least susceptible will be the most successful. Plants that can most fully exploit a habitat tend to dominate it, and, since trees have evolved trunks that allow them access to the aerial environment and massive root systems that permit them to infiltrate the subterranean environment, they dominate much of the biosphere. Trees are at a disadvantage only in drier areas, in Alpine and Arctic environments, and in competition with humans.

The number of species of trees within a forest tends to increase as they approach the Equator. This is due to various environmental factors, including decreased stress in terms of light, temperature, water, and length of the growing season. The productivity and heterogeneity of the habitats also increase in these situations. Moreover, the frequency of disturbance (e.g., storms, floods, landslides, and fires) is greater, as is the response to the disturbance, which also contributes to species diversity in tropical forests.

Trees may respond to their environment in a number of ways, chiefly by morphological and physiological responses as well as by the reallocation of available nutrients and water to those organs in most need. There are usually both genotypic and phenotypic aspects to such physiological and morphological adaptations. Moreover, there is a dynamic equilibrium between genetic stability (the capacity of individuals to produce offspring adapted to the parental environment) and genetic variability (the capacity to produce offspring with requirements that are different from those of their parents). Genetic variability produces some offspring with a greater potential to adapt to new habitats and also to changes induced by the disturbance of the original habitat.

Phenotypic plasticity is a way in which organisms can harmonize the conflict between stability and variability—that is, the way in which the morphological expression of a given genotype varies under different environmental conditions. While forest species must maintain present adaptiveness to the current environment, the future of the species may depend on sufficient variability to adapt to future environments. Further, changes in the ability of a species to utilize the available resources of the environment can have major effects on coexisting species.

The shape of a tree is an ecological construct, since its form is dependent on the habitat and the stresses of the environment. Open-grown trees, such as those in gardens and parks, generally have foliage extending along the length of the trunk (bole) for a considerable distance. Forest trees, on the other hand, compete for growing space and generally have an expanse of foliage-free bole below a more limited tree crown. The aggregate of the tree crowns constitutes the canopy of the forest, and this may be displayed in a single layer or stratified into several layers, depending on the number and kinds of trees that make up the forest.

The ultimate goal of tree ecophysiology is to determine why a certain tree grows where it does. The complex answer includes the following elements: its seed or source; its fitness for survival, growth, and reproduction in that particular habitat; and its ability to compete favourably with other inhabitants of the habitat.

The growth, structure, and composition of a forest are a function of the intensity and quality of light streaming into it. Trees partition the light resource in time and space.

The time dimensions include seasonal, successional, and developmental time. In seasonal time, the time of leafing out and leaf fall and the time of flowering, seed formation, and germination are considered. In successional time, clearings in forests initiate growth in preexisting seedlings and new germinants, which causes progressive changes in the distribution of light and results in changes in species composition over time. In developmental time, changes take place in the physiology and morphology of the tree with age.

Leaves are the primary collectors of solar energy and the organ most directly affected by the environment. They also are the most responsive to environmental signals. Leaf properties are determined by light, nutrients, moisture, and the space-time parameters.

A petiole attaches the leaf to the stem and contains vascular tissue that provides a connection from the stem to permit sap to enter the leaf and the products of photosynthesis (carbohydrates) to be transported from the leaf to the rest of the plant. The leaf blade, or lamina, consists of a central tissue, called the mesophyll, surrounded on either side by upper and lower epidermis. Patterns of the leaf veins are often characteristic of plant taxa and may include one main vein and various orders of smaller veins, the finest veinlets infiltrating the mesophyll, from which they collect photosynthates. The cells of the mesophyll contain the bulk of the chlorophyll, a molecule that converts light energy into the chemical energy of carbohydrate molecules, within minute membrane-bound sacs called chloroplasts.

In most angiosperm trees only the lower epidermis contains pores, called stomates, where gas exchange with the atmosphere takes place; carbon dioxide is taken up, and water vapour and oxygen are given off. The epidermis is covered with wax and a layer of polyester material called the cuticle. These tend to restrict water loss from the stomates and protect them from desiccation. Conifer leaves have less structural diversity. They contain an epidermis with wax and an underlying cuticle.

The epidermis may have one or more thick-walled layers called the hypodermis beneath it. The sunken stomates are generally located on all surfaces, and the cavity is filled with wax. The vascular tissue is embedded in a layer of spongy cells called the transfusion tissue, which is thought to facilitate water distribution to the mesophyll.

The leaves of trees have a number of adaptive features, including size, number, location, and chlorophyll content of chloroplasts; size, number, and structure of stomates; thickness of epicuticular wax and cuticle; leaf stiffness and strength; and the size, number, and spacing of veins.

Trees of dry (xeric), moist (mesic), and wet (hydric) habitats have leaves that are specifically adapted structurally and functionally to these habitats. Dryness and cold induce some similar specializations, because cold conditions are often desiccating conditions as well. Tree leaves of mesic environments have a set of traits intermediate between xeric and hydric leaves.

Under xeromorphic conditions, the leaf has adopted features that decrease water loss. Leaf area that is exposed to the ambient air is reduced, although the ratio of internal surface to external surface area is high. The cells themselves are small, and the thickness of the wall is increased, as is the amount of fibrous tissue in the leaf, making the surface of the leaf rather hard. There are a larger number of veins. The epidermis is thick-walled and hairy, often with additional hypodermis and covered by a cuticle and epicuticular wax. Stomates are smaller, more closely spaced, sunken below the leaf surface, and covered with wax or hairs or both. Salt glands and water-storage cells are present in some species.

Tree leaves of supermoist environments, on the other hand, have fewer adaptations to minimize water loss. Large air spaces are present within the loosely packed mesophyll, and the cuticle is reduced, as are the number and frequency of veins. The stomates are larger but less closely spaced and either level with the leaf surface or elevated above it. The amount of fibrous tissue is reduced, and the hypodermis is absent. Water-secreting glands may be present. The walls of the epidermis are thinner.

Trees can reach or approach adaptation to a specific habitat by different combinations of morphological, anatomical, and physiological traits. The more closely the trees use the same subset of adaptive features, the more strongly they compete with each other for habitat resources. For this reason, trees of the same species compete more strongly with each other on a site than they do with members of other species.

In branches, reaction tissue forms where its inherent reaction force (pushing in the case of conifers and pulling in the case of hardwoods) will restore the intrinsic growth direction (equilibrium, or initial, position). This defines the locus of reaction tissue irrespective of the orientation of the structure with respect to gravity. Thus, reaction tissue is an adaptive morphogenetic phenomenon.

Many plant tissues show physiological and anatomical reactions due to physical displacement, but the response in wood is more permanent, more visible, and of greater economic importance, since reaction wood has in-built stresses that limit its use for most building projects, such as housing and furniture.

In the trunks of conifers, the reaction wood, called compression wood, forms on the lower side with respect to gravity and exerts a pushing force in the upward direction. In compression woods there is more growth on the lower side of the stem where the compression wood forms; this results in an oval cross section of the tree near the ground. This type of growth is called eccentric. In hardwood trunks the reaction wood is called tension wood and forms on the upper side of the lower trunk and exerts a contractive force that tends to pull the tree toward the upright position. In hardwoods there is generally less eccentricity associated with tension wood, but the annual rings may be wider. The names “tension wood” and “compression wood” are misleading, since they were assigned when the phenomena were thought to be due to such forces in the wood. Only later was it realized that the phenomenon was morphogenetic in nature and that tension or compression wood could form in wood that was in either tension or compression.

While reaction wood in the main stem occurs primarily in response to vertical displacement, reaction wood in branches acts against gravity to maintain the angle between the branch and the main axis. For example, the terminal shoots of pines exhibit negative geotropism throughout the growing season, and little or no compression wood is formed in the terminal shoots (although it is usually present in the laterals). In other species, such as the Canadian, or eastern, hemlock (Tsuga canadensis), the terminal shoots droop at the beginning of the season and gradually turn upward as the growing season progresses. During the drooping phase, the terminal (leader) is extremely flexible and sways freely in the wind. As the season progresses, the leader gradually increases in rigidity and, under the influence of compression wood formation, becomes erect to a vertical position. The rigidity is enhanced by the fact that compression wood is more highly lignified than regular wood. Concomitantly, the cellulose content is reduced.

In conifers a single cell type (the tracheid) is specialized for both conduction of sap and support. In compression wood the tracheid becomes quite round in cross section, forming intercellular spaces between neighbouring tracheids. Such spaces are not present in noncompression wood except in some species of junipers. The compression wood tracheids are so heavily lignified that the wood appears visibly reddish to the naked eye. The tracheids are thicker-walled, have spiral grooves along the length of the wall, and are shorter than noncompression wood tracheids.

In hardwoods the fibres are predominantly affected, although vessel diameter and frequency are generally reduced. The fibres of hardwoods develop a specialized layer in the cell wall—the so-called gelatinous layer—that is almost completely devoid of lignin, although in the other layers the fibre wall is lignified. The gelatinous layer is primarily composed of cellulose and hemicellulose. It is rubbery in texture and does not cut cleanly. Thus, tension wood fibres may be visible to the naked eye on a sawed board as a fuzzy surface. The lumber sawed from this wood will warp, cup, and exhibit much greater longitudinal shrinkage than nontension wood.